The Recipe for the First Prize Cuisine – ‘The Yangchigi Pie’ by Stephen Neumann

This cuisine by Stephen Neumann of CIA was placed as the top dish at the Korean Sensation Culinary Contest. It goes by the name, 'Yangchigi Pie, a.k.a Pâté Coréen in French; meaning Shepherd's Pie in English.

This Korean-styled pie is said to be a combination of what he grew up eating and what inspired him during his stay in Korea. Here are the list of the ingredient and its recipe for the Yangchigi Pie.

Scrub and dry the sweet potatoes. Pierce the skin of the sweet potatoes few times with a fork. Place them on a sheet pan and bake them in the oven at 425°F until they bubble and very tender and cooked through, for approx. 45 minutes. Be sure to rotate them at least once.

Wash and peel the russet potato and cut into large even-sized pieces. Place them in a small pot and fill with water to half the height of the potatoes. Add ½ cup of butter and a good amount of salt (roughly 1 tbsp). Cover with a lid and place on med-high heat until the potatoes are cooked through approx. 15-20 minutes. Keep warm and reserve.

Once both the sweet potato and the russet potatoes are done and still warm, cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh and into a clean medium-sized pot. Add the cooked russet potato to the pot of sweet potato and add the remaining cup of butter and heavy cream. Mix together over low heat until all of the ingredients have melted and merged together into a creamy mash. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Reserve.

Peel and rinse the ears of corn to remove remaining silk. Cut the kernels off of the cobs and add one half of them to a blender. Pass the blended corn through a fine mesh strainer and keep both the solid and the liquid separate. Add the tablespoon of butter to a medium-sized frying pan and then sweat the ½ shallot. Once sweated, add the solid strained corn mash along with the remaining whole kernels of corn. Cook over medium heat, season with salt and pepper and add some of the strained liquid gradually throughout the cooking process to achieve a loose, porridge-like consistency.

In a large frying pan, lightly toast the fennel seeds over medium heat until they begin to release their aromas, but do not change color too much. Once done, transfer the fennel seeds to a bowl and reserve.

Add a little vegetable oil to the same large, hot frying pan over medium heat (enough to lightly coat) and add the onion to sweat. Once sweated, add the garlic and lamb meat and proceed to breakup the meat. Once broken up and spread out in the pan, add the fennel seeds, crushed red pepper flakes and the Bulgogi sauce. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the meat has just turned from pink to greyish-brown. Strain the meat, discarding the juices, and transfer the meat to a bowl. Mix in the chopped mint and reserve.

With either an oven-proof casserole dish or individual serving-sized oven-proof bowls, begin to fill with a bottom layer of the lamb meat mixture. Next, add a layer of the cooked corn mixture and spread to cover the layer of meat on the bottom. Place a layer of the julienned Kimchi atop the corn. Lastly, top the layer of kimchi completely with a layer of potato mixture. Level off the top and then brush the top of the potato with the egg wash. Place the casserole dish on a baking sheet and place in an oven at 350°F until the top of the potatoes have gained a golden brown color, about 45 minutes.

For the garnish, add the apple cider vinegar, sugar, and star anise to a small pot and bring to a boil. Place the remaining julienne shallots in a coffee mug and strain the boiling pickling liquid atop the shallots and let sit until the cooking of the Yangchigi Pie (aka Pâté Coréen) is done. When the time comes, remove the shallots from the pickling liquid and reserve.

Once done baking, pull the pie(s) from the oven and garnish with pickled shallots and dust lightly with minced mint.